This stop at the Tivoli Concert Hall is the first pre-booked gig of the tour – the opening concerts at Wembley Arena were last minute changes (after the Rainbow Theater shuttered its doors weeks before) and the 4/11 show was a logical addition, given that the ferry to Denmark leaves from Newcastle.
It's clear from the opening chords of Bertha that the band is enthused and focused. It's also readily apparent that the acoustics of the Tivoli Concert Hall are worlds better than that of the first two venues on the tour. Whereas Wembley Arena sounded compressed, forced and forward - and Newcastle damp, congested and weighty - Tivoli is loose, airy and flowing - providing the band with space for movement. The room decay is natural and pleasing [e.g. the tom intros to Mr. Charlie and Black Throated Wind], the vocal blend is tighter and the instruments have a warm and inviting tone. All of this translates into a more energetic performance from the boys. Perhaps the renewed energy also stems from the band finally getting out of the UK and into one of the more intimate venues they were originally scheduled to play. In this way, Tivoli was a little taste of home away from home.
The Bertha is standard for this era – by which I mean nimble, full of energy and ripping. The Me & My Uncle features a quick tempo, solid lead work from Jerry and strong vocals from Bobby...thankfully his laryngitis has cleared (jet lag and screaming through a few One More Saturday Night encores will take its toll).
Keith's playing in the first set must be highlighted - he's absolutely tearing it up. He's very low in the mix (this goes back to what Jeffrey Norman was discussing at the AES Convention - see my earlier blog post for more details), so you have to listen closely but MY WORD it is certainly worth paying attention to. Here are some first set Keith highlights for your consideration:
* His use of 7th chords and syncopated interplay between his right and left hands in Mr. Charlie is amazing - the rhythmic foundation he lays down makes for a very funky, chunky rendition of this Pigpen classic.
* Keith's solo in You Win Again - wow! Stop for a moment and appreciate the subtlety, nuance and comfort with which the Dead dispatch this traditional country swing song. It’s uncanny for an American rock band - especially one so rooted in psychedelic flights of fancy and raunchy, thunderous R&B. [In fact, name another band from 1972 that could move effortlessly from a Hank Williams country swing to up-tempo bluegrass, through a half-hour mind expanding musical experiment and a assortment of pop songs in the course of a single evening.] Give this You Win Again a couple of listens – dig deep. Listen closely to Bobby and Keith’s cadenced relationships and the tasteful phrasing of Jerry's vocals and guitar licks.
* Chinatown Shuffle – there is something about this recording and this room that sets the stage perfectly for Keith to shine. The Tivoli offers us a natural, grand piano sound – one that's open, uncongested – one that floats effortlessly in the overall soundstage. This Chinatown Shuffle demonstrates Keith as the consummate listener and interpreter of his band mate's ideas. For example, notice how he emulates the triplet feel from the end of Jerry's solo and seamlessly slides it into the opening phrase of his own solo.
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The Europe '72 tour features a host of excellent stage banter - and this night in Copenhagen has one of my favorite threads sewn through it. Before the start of You Win Again, Phil tells the audience that they don’t need to clap in unison; that they (the band) won’t necessarily play a song in that tempo. Jerry and Bobby add (in keeping with their purist, free-wheeling sensibilities) that the audience can do whatever they want to. Bobby then asks by a show of hands, how many people in the crowd can understand what they're saying – apparently not many. So, not only has the audience never heard this music before, they don’t even comprehend the group's basic efforts to communicate. The Danish audience is undeterred and the unified applause returns after the following song...(to be continued)
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Loser is a primer in the concept of dynamics. As Jeffrey Norman discussed at AES , the fact that the microphones were run direct to tape and given the minimal amount of compression used in the mixing/mastering processes, the overall product is extremely dynamic. In Loser we experience the gamut - from the low, empty spaces of the verses [listen to the decay of Jerry's voice and the snare drum], up to the booming crescendo of the refrain “Last fair deal in the country!”
** Side note: Sweet Suzie lives. Much like a baseball geek memorizes statistics about his favorite team, I too find myself combing the aural records of the Dead, in search of meaningless minutia. One such quest is to find the last Loser where Jerry mentions "Sweet Suzie" in the refrain. I know she passes away soon after this tour (although I've heard rumors that she made a brief appearance decades later)...any further insight you might have into this maddening pursuit is always welcome. **
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The Me & Bobby McGee features Bobby and Keith fusing into a single, four-armed rhythmic creature - as they trade-off right and left hand responsibilities. Jerry showcases excellent pinched harmonics at the 2:10 mark and some more open-chord banjo finger picking at 5:20. During the sing-song refrain, check out the 3 vs. 4 tension manifested by Keith and Phil - and the cut-time interplay between Phil's bass and Billy's snare/ride cymbal combo.
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Meanwhile, back to the fantastic banter thread...The audience returns to the synchronized clapping after Me & Bobby McGee. Phil may have given the crowd a stern talking-to earlier in the set but it's Bobby who rises to their defense, grabbing onto their pulse - kicking right into a brisk Cumberland Blues intro. You can almost see their beaming smiles as the rest of the band follows suit. Yet another prime example of the humor and imagination in the Grateful Dead’s music and stage presence.
Never mind the novelty of the scenario - this Cumberland is hot! The Tivoli's acoustics provide a perfect canvas for the vocal harmonies and the band pays worthy tribute to their folksy, acoustic roots. Jerry’s flat-picking solos get more aggressive and sharper with each passing verse and by the second go-round in minute 2:00 he’s just flying! It's no 4/8 Cumberland but it'll do just fine, thank you very much.
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Disc 1 closes with another solid Playin' In The Band - it's a little rough to start but it opens up into a solid intermezzo jam. The 4/14 Playin' is thick, rhythmic and driving. Unlike much of the first set, there's not a lot of perceivable air in between the instruments. On the contrary, the music has a weighty feel - like a dense, dark mass hurtling through space.
The tritone dissonant chord presentation at the 4:20 mark, Keith's 10-note chord forms mixed throughout, and Jerry's tasty "tiger melt-down" just before the reprise in the 7th minute are highlights of this Playin'. In addition, Billy’s interpretation of the 10-figure in between verses is remarkable – and certainly worth a deeper listen. Take some time and scan back through these interludes a few times. Also, his cymbals during the resolution in the 9th minute provide more evidence of the Tivoli's acoustic signature.
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The Tennessee Jed from 4/14 is the best of the tour. The slow crescendo developed in the jam section is simply epic!
Big Boss Man - Check out the little two-step drum fills as they turn into the second go-around of Jerry’s solo. Billy is locked in...deep in the pocket.
Bobby calls out a "Baker's Dozen" for the intro of Beat It On Down The Line. His pronouncement is off-mic and very low in the mix but if you pay close attention you can hear it. Yet another reason to crank up the volume (as if you needed any more)...
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Rumor has it that one of the working titles for this box set was Europe '72 - Spring of the Stand-Alone Shit-Kicking Truckin' ;) Although someone in the marketing department of GDP shot down the idea, the sentiment is more than understandable...and the 4/14 second set opener bears witness. The jam after the first "Going home" verse is vibrant and riddled with potency.
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The Brown-Eyed Women is an excellent example of Phil's round, cutting bass tone and his unique roll as a third part harmony instrument. In this way, Phil Lesh is unlike any other bass player in rock and roll history. In the 3rd minute, from the resolution of the bridge straight through the next verse, you can very hear some very cool counter-melody work from Phil.
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The final Looks Like Rain of the tour puts a bookend on the offerings of Disc 2. Phil's high harmony is stunning, especially in the "Stray cats" verse. We are treated to one last foray into the brilliance of Jerry's pedal steel - his solo is completely in control, tasteful and (in my humble opinion) perfect. The interaction between the pedal steel guitar, piano and organ from the 2:00 mark on is emotional, evocative and still gives me chills...even after several listens.
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The other working title rumored for consideration of this release was Europe '72 - Just Skip to Disc 3. Granted, this suggestion makes complete sense but the "powers that be" felt there were far too many Disc 1 & 2 highlights throughout the tour to move forward with this title.
With that said...Disc 3 of Tivoli 4/14 opens with a very interesting 29+ minute Dark Star. One that demonstrates with great clarity the breadth of the Grateful Dead's musical vocabulary and myriad skills. In particular the 4/14 Tivoli Dark Star highlights their innate facility for what I refer to as "group-think-improvisation" and "thematic improvisation."
The opening 8 minutes of Dark Star are fairly routine, with the band introducing the primary melodic and harmonic structures of the composition. Then in the 9th minute we hear staccato call and response ideas bandied between Jerry and Billy...and with the genesis of that simple musical relationship the "group-think" process has begun. Keith joins the fray with some upper-register staccato ideas of his own - in direct response to the melodic ideas presented by Jerry.
At the 10:15 mark Phil establishes a variation of the 12-beat (7 vs. 5) motif that grabs Bobby's attention. Within a few more measures, the anchor has been set and the rest of the band has vectored on a new tangent. Minutes 11:00 through 17:00 takes us through a complete mixolydian meltdown - with some tasty interchanges between Keith and Jerry in minute 12:00 - and various themes represented (most notably an obvious Sugar Magnolia tease just before the return of the main theme and Jerry's first verse lead vocal - see if you can pick it out).
With the arrival of minute 19:00 we are treated to another cut-time groove offered up by Billy (he seems enamored with these alla breve jams - they have popped up throughout the first four shows of the tour). This is where things get really interesting...
Ladies and gentlemen allow me to present to you the Grateful Dead's completely contrived and yet thoroughly serendipitous musical concept of "thematic improvisation." Perhaps the best way I can describe it is by means of some random anecdotal evidence...
The other day while walking in Manhattan I passed by a gentleman wearing an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) hat. It didn't strike me at the time but as I entered the subway at 53rd and 5th I started thinking about the summer I spent in Israel as a teenager and this amazing falafel stand just off of King David Street in Jerusalem. Before long, I had decided to change my initial plan - bail on Penn Station and stay on the E train a few extra stops to hit Mamoun's Falafel in Greenwich Village. Mind you, I wasn't even hungry before I saw the hat but within minutes I had subconsciously changed my course of action and was soon mowing through a delicious falafel sandwich...I digress...
(With the arrival of minute 19:00 we are treated to another cut-time groove offered up by Billy)...this alla breve groove is appropriated by Phil and by the time minute 20:00 rolls around his downward-moving chromatic theme (floating in thought between a Mind Left Body Jam and Uncle John's Band) from the previous night is front and center of this Dark Star jam. [It's at this point that I wish I could sing into my blog to mimic Phil's baseline - however, the motif is so distinct, if you drop the proverbial needle at the 21:00 mark, I'm confident it will jump out of your stereo and punch you in the eye.] By 21:39 the full chord voicing is developed by Bobby and the band is suddenly toying with that odd, strangely familiar movement from Newcastle.
Who knows exactly what Phil heard/saw/felt/smelled/tasted that keyed this musical memory from the 4/11 concert...and for that matter, who cares? I just find it fascinating how Jerry's "Morse Code Jam" from the 4/8 Wembley Arena Dark Star was introduced by Phil during the 4/11 Newcastle Truckin' and developed into an "almost but not quite" Uncle John's Band groove. And then three nights later, the 4/11 Uncle John's Band-ish groove is reanimated by Phil and transmogriphied into yet another unique yet vaguely recognizable offering for us in Tivoli...and by 21:51 we’re deep into...Phil's Falafel Jam!
Tonight the passage has more structure - the band runs through the chord changes in a sequence of four rotations - hinting at a resolution after each quadrant. It feels as if they are ambivalent about resolving the tension. Musically, it makes sense to complete the thought, wrap it up and move on. In fact, the progression is structured in such a way that resolution is almost impossible to resist. However, I get the sense that the band wants to hold onto the idea as long as they can...
Like a bird in a gilded cage, the thematic improvisation is trapped, yet free to sing, grow, move and take itself and the band to higher, only dreamed of reaches...so long as the cage (the moment) remains closed (in the present). As soon as the cage door is opened, the idea will certainly fly away...and there is a risk it will not return. And yet, the door must be opened because something so beautiful was never meant to be held captive. It's the risk every performer must take. Such is the nature of live improvised music.
Vis-à-vis this stylized, thematic improvisation, the Grateful Dead are evolving as a band writ large before their audiences' very eyes, ears and hearts - developing musical ideas and contextual landscapes on both inter- and intra- performance levels.
The tension from the thematic passage lasts and lasts - with its eventual resolution into a two-chord vamp jam around minute 25:00, once again reminding us that we're still within Dark Star. All shreds of the chromatic-tether-to-reality structure have been stripped away and we're adrift in free-form space by the second half of the 25th minute. Bended minor 2nd figures from Bobby and pinched harmonic, wah-wah infused madness from Jerry takes us through the 28th minute...
A total melt-down of time, signature and key ensues and at 29:18 we are greeted with a prelude to the Sugar Magnolia on deck. You can tell that Bobby has turned to face Billy's drum kit as he chunks out the march-like opening rhythm of Sugar Magnolia on his semi-hollow body Gibson ES-345.
Here we find ourselves at the end of a 29+ minute exploratory Dark Star and seemingly out of nowhere Bobby's hints and teases come to fruition and we're dropped right into Sugar Magnolia...with Jerry still holding onto some of the spacey weirdness. While the rest of the band has fully embarked on the Sugar Mags, Jerry's Dark Star persists. The way he gradually morphs his eerie, bended figures straight into an A-major country swing is simply brilliant!
Another stellar example of vintage Grateful Dead musical juxtaposition. Much like in a dream – two almost seemingly incongruous thoughts or mind-spaces (a chaotic, time-bending Dark Star and a beautiful, uplifting Sugar Magnolia) are thrust together. Scene 1!–CUT!–Scene 2! And yet as diametrically opposed as these ideas might seem when considered alone…the amalgamation makes complete sense in the dream-like state of a Grateful Dead concert. Furthermore, it is only upon waking from the dream that the dreamer is capable of comprehending the absurd beauty of the fused perceptions as present therein.
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A relatively lack luster Sugar Magnolia slides right into Phil's ubiquitous Good Lovin' intro. Pigpen cruises through the opening verses and chorus and Jerry's Dom7-flat9 chord drops us headfirst into the jam section...
* We get a Caution tease from Jerry at the 7:30 mark
* Bobby doing his best Keith Richards imitation at 9:25. Take a listen and tell me that isn't the signature chord-strut from Can't You Hear Me Knockin'? - nice!
* Also check out Bobby playing a half-time Good Lovin' intro theme against the cut-time of Billy’s drums at 15:46
Pigpen is still with us and the Good Lovin’s and Caution's of this tour harken back to a more raw (quite frankly) sloppy Grateful Dead - loose, boozed-up, drugged-out bluesy mayhem. By the spring of 1972 the Dead have certainly started to evolve beyond their impulsive R&B foundations but Pigpen keeps them rooted in that earthy, musical sty. The "musical ghetto" of the blues. The anchor that Pigpen represents is a double-edged sword of sorts. The musical ghetto of the blues is where the Grateful Dead came from and yet by April 1972 this band wanted to soar - it wanted to fly to new uncharted heights. Pigpen was keeping them true to their roots but in doing so, he was also holding them back.
Europe '72 serves as Pigpen's swan song. He gave it all he had every night, leaving it all on the stage. Unbeknownst to them, it was also the band's opportunity to say farewell to Pig and everything he represented. Oddly enough, it stands as a tribute to Pigpen that soon after his demise (late 72 – early 73) the Grateful Dead's music took off at warp speed - rocketing in an unencumbered, jazzed-up, funky improvisational way. As sad as it was for his mates to lose their dear friend and only true front man, Pigpen in his passing allowed the band to be free. The bird in the gilded cage was liberated at last.
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Whereas normally it’s Phil's walking bass line that drags the band into Caution – at 4/14 Tivoli, it’s Jerry’s rolled guitar line that introduces the song. Jerry teased it earlier in Good Lovin' and here we go...
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The room acoustics are again laid bare in the tom tom introduction of Not Fade Away.
I’ve always said that certain instruments want you (almost compel you) to play a certain way or play certain songs. For instance my Telecaster begs me to play Johnny Cash tunes as soon as I strap her on. The Nash Strat wants Jerry to play the Not Fade Away riff...I’m convinced of it. There is something about the tone and feel of that guitar that is perfectly suited for the chunky, Bo Diddly beat of that classic song. Some of the effortless, bended pedal steel licks between minutes 1:10 – 1:30 serve as evidence to this symbiotic relationship.
There is a very cool sequence that starts at approximately 4:00 into the Not Fade Away jam. Jerry gives a deliberate chord cue that he's ready to move the band into the impending Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad. Bobby interpolates Jerry's idea at 5:03 - flipping it on its head - turning it into his archetypal secondary lead from the China-Rider transition jam. I can picture the grin on Jerry's face as he grabs onto Bobby's gambit and lays his lead over top. Pure joy!
A solid Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad follows, only to have the band hesitantly stumble back into the Not Fade Away reprise – Oy!
The call and response vocals traded between Bobby and Pigpen at the end of the second Not Fade Away pay homage to the slave field songs from the Mississippi Delta that bore the blues, jazz and practically all American music to follow.
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Bobby and Billy offer up a tasty little James Brown shuffle just before the well-paced One More Saturday Night encore that closes the 4/14 Tivoli show. This rendition is chock full of Albert King styled, Chuck Berry licks from Jerry throughout. Certainly an all-to-familiar yet fitting way to end a very special evening in Copenhagen.
As always, thank you for reading. Stay cool, stay focused and by all means stay tuned! We're off to Aarhus – do me a favor and save me a spot in the cafeteria.
© Aaron Miller – 2011
